Suppliers unified for field device integration – the latest on FDI

Phil Black - PII Editor 13/11/2009

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Field Device Integration (FDI) technology

To accelerate deployment of the Field Device Integration (FDI) technology, Key Suppliers agreed to enlarge the scope of the EDDL Cooperation Team and will become the FDI Cooperation.

This cooperation will initially consist of the associations: FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communications Foundation, OPC Foundation and PROFIBUS Nutzerorganisation, as well as the companies ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, Honeywell, Invensys, Siemens, and Yokogawa.
The FDI project was kicked-off at 2007 Hanover Fair. At this time ECT welcomed FDT Group with the primary objective of harmonizing EDDL and FDT/DTM technologies. Since then, the project has carefully shaped the technology direction for the converged FDI solution.

The addition of supplier companies, which have agreed to support FDI packages in their systems and products, will strengthen this effort by providing resources for the completion of this project.
Besides the finalization of the FDI specification, which is scheduled for mid 2010, the scope of the enlarged EDDL Cooperation Team is covering common design and test tools, common binary format and interpreter across the protocols of HART, FF and PROFIBUS.
The intent is to assure a uniform device integration solution for process industries across all host systems, devices and protocols as required by end users.

PROFIBUS International fully supports the effort to expand the consortium because the direct involvement of system suppliers will greatly accelerate the integration of FDI into process control systems. This step will create confidence and investment protection for users who for a long time have been calling for a single standard for device integration.